Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Our second day we went to our first park--Animal Kingdom! We had a great time there! Griffin's favorite attraction was the Festival of the Lion King show and Anderson's favorite was the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride. We also all four liked Kali River Rapids--we wore ponchos and were so glad we did! Most of the people that ride get off looking like they've jumped into a swimming pool!

We got to see some gorillas on an Exploration Trail... We just stopped for a picture with these guys in the Rainforest Cafe on our way out! Meeting King Louis and Baloo from The Jungle Book!The boys woke up at 5:30 AM that morning when Griffin sat up in bed and yelled, "It's finally time to go!" Needless to say, there was no going back to sleep, and we decided to come back for a long nap and a swim for the afternoon. That night we ate at one of our favorite restaurants of our trip--Chef Mickey's! One of the boys' favorite things about this place was that we rode the monorail to get there, and they got to watch the monorail through the whole dinner because it picks up inside the Contemporary Resort (where the restaurant is). The thumbs up returned for Goofy...

Friday, July 24, 2009

We just got back from the "Happiest Place on Earth," and had such a WONDERFUL time!! For those who don't know, Michael works to qualify for a trip each year with State Farm, and this year we chose the alternate to Disney. I've been looking forward to this trip and planning/researching for a year now, and to be totally honest I'm so sad it's over now :( Nana and Poppy were so sweet to keep Collier for us so we could just take the boys--I was continually reminded of how grateful I was for them everytime I saw those poor, sweet parents trying to care for a hot and tired little one around those crazy parks!! I've been coming up with some tips for any of you planning a trip to that magical place, and I'm going to post those after I of course inundate you with my usual enormous amount of pictures :) So, here we go!

We were blessed to be able to fly to Orlando (thank you St. Farm), which the boys absolutely loved! I had a little backpack for each of them with some Mickey coloring books and things, but they didn't even open them during our flight because they were so excited! They were decked out in Mickey shirts and light-up Mickey flip flops with Mickey cups hanging around their necks--I'm sure no one could tell where we were going!

This big Mickey is there to greet you in the Orlando Airport!

Disney's Magical Express is so awesome--you just get off your airplane and get on a bus to your hotel--they get your bags and bring them to your room--super helpful with all the stuff we brought! We stayed at the Yacht Club (thank you St. Farm), and it was great! We loved everything about it (esp. the pool). We arrived pretty early in the day, so we were able to just explore the hotel, take naps, and swim a little while. State Farm had an arrival reception with the characters, so we were able to go ahead and meet many of them and have our pictures taken...

First up was Minnie and Mickey!

Anderson showing Mickey his light-up Mickey flip flops... Then Goofy and Pluto--they really put on a show!Then Donald... We loved the Mickey ice cream! That evening we went to Downtown Disney--that way we didn't use a day of our Park Hopper passes, but we still got to enjoy Disney! We went to T-Rex for dinner...if you have boys, this is a MUST! It is just unbelievable! The boys were in awe of it, but so were Michael and I! They have huge dinosaurs throughout the restaurant, and every 5-10 minutes they "come to life" and roar and move. I think it could be a little scary at first, but so cool--and our food was really good too! Here's some pictures of the boys in front of some of the dinosaurs (Griffin was a little more into getting his picture made with them than Anderson (I know you couldn't tell by all his thumbs up :) Okay, so that was the end of our first day...so much fun and we hadn't even been to a park yet! I'll stop here for now...next post will be Animal Kingdom!!! I'm ready to go back!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

We went to the zoo a couple weeks ago for "Big Reptile Day." The boys got to take their picture with Waldo the giant tortoise for his 50th birthday!

Petting the skunk and groundhog...

Griffin the gorilla! Taking a train ride... Wishing we could jump and swim with the seals... One day I took the kids to pick peaches! I wasn't sure how they would do, but we really had a great time! Collier spent most of her time curiously walking around the orchard and Anderson loved climbing the trees, but Griffin actually got really into picking the peaches! We really enjoyed eating all the peaches (especially the peach cobbler we made)! Griffin just tested to get his Black Belt in Karate! He did a great job and we were so proud of him! Here he is with one of his teachers, Ms. Little, after he tested.